So I have been thinking a lot about discipline. Not in the sense of punishment. Punishment is about an authoritative person or structure enforcing submission of someone who is subject to their power. There is probably a time and place for this type of discipline – such as in a functional accountability system – but …
Thoughtful text that is concise and accessible is a mark of persistence. No worthwhile creation is born fully-fledged. Complex physical movements are always performed clumsily before they become fluid: walking, running, riding a bike, throwing a ball, strumming a guitar, mincing an onion, hitting fifth position… No amount of natural ability in any of those …
I overthink a lot of things. After more than 4 decades of tightening and loosening nuts and bolts, I can still confuse myself about which way to pull the handle of the ratchet when it’s facing away from me. The mnemonic “lefty-loosy, righty-tighty” works great when you are looking directly at the fastener you’re about …
Articles about guitarists inevitably take a turn toward describing their “rigs.” It’s usually in connection with discussion about their “tone.” When I was first learning to play guitar, I remember reading articles and feeling like I should understand what “tone” was – and knowing I didn’t. Not really. So I took the authors at their …
I woke up yesterday thinking about what I wanted to write. And today, same. Yesterday I stayed in bed for a while, enjoying being able to puzzle through ideas under the warm sheets, knowing it was -15F outside. Today, I didn’t lounge – even though it was even colder outside. I got out of …
I am sure we’ve all been there. Trying to stay out of sight from a second-floor window, while surreptitiously watching, enraptured, as the septic guy installs the new drainfield. That’s a thing everyone does, right? How could you not get caught up? Right? It’s an amazing thing to behold. How did he know exactly …
My office door isn’t plumb. That bugs me. It isn’t far out. You can’t see it. Really, its only noticeable if there is weight on the coat hook on the back of the door. Because then it falls partially-closed. Not fully-closed mind you. Not even mostly closed. Just closed enough to look sloppy. If my …
Garage Monkeys. That is how Pirsig and Crawford describe them. Each writes about a different species: Pirsig about repair techs who lack arete and Crawford about the middle managers who stand between vehicle owners and vehicle repair techs. They are adjacent parts of the modern automotive service-shop organization and both offend something at my core. …
It’s one of my favorite parts of a repair job: a symbolic transition, instantiated in the physical act of switching the ratchet from “loosen” to “tighten.” In terms of the sense of satisfaction it brings, it is rivaled only by the moment a newly-repaired mechanism starts and operates properly again for the first time. For …
I want to write about grading – but not the kind of grading that results in scores or letters A-F (excluding, for whatever reason, ‘E’). I have something to say about a kind of grading few people think about anymore – and even fewer understand. If you have lived your life on paved roadways, you …